I have exams soon, so I won't update for a while, and sorry if this is short, I wanted to update before I became way too swamped to do anything.
Responses to Reviews!
KharmaSmack: What's TDD? I learned all the sign language in this fic from going to an online sign language dictionary, so I'm kinda ignorant. I'm hoping to take private lessons in ASL in the summer though.
Samurai Katagi: Great idea! I already have an evil fluffy plan though... you should write that, I would like to see that happen!
Sakuli: Yep, cochlear implants exist. One of my best friends has one. She taught me how to swear in ASL! Boy oh boy is that fun! Almost as fun as swearing in French!
Heh. My mouth could be cleaner, but it's not too bad. I swear more in other languages than in English.
Ok, that's enough responses!
Please review when you read this. It makes me feel all happy inside when I read that I've gotten reviews!
I knock on the door to my parent's room, awaiting their decision on whether or not I'm to have the operation. I fidget in the marble hall, I am impatient. The decision is up to mom and dad, even if I barely see them and they don't really know me. You see, they still see me as the little frustrated two-year-old who scribbled all over daddy's piece of priceless art.
Mother opens the door. She fumbles about with her hands and fingerspells a 'h-e-l-l-o d-e-a-r.'
Finger spelling is all mother can do. She keeps adding 'A's and 'H's here and there in her sentences.
Sign language is a challenge for my parents. Father can't do it at all and has to have mother fingerspell it all out, or have Kaede come in and do it properly. Mother can fingerspell, and sometimes give me looks that I understand to be 'shut up' and 'come here.'
Mother takes my hand and leads me into the room, sitting me on their enormous couch near the centre of the room.
"D-a-r-i-n-g, w-e'v-e d-e-e-n t-h-i-n-k-i-n-g a-b-o-u-t y-o-u-r i-d-e-a, a-n-d... w-e d-o-n't r-e-a-l-l-y k-n-o-w w-h-a-t t-o s-a-y." I notice that she misspelled 'darling' and 'been.' Finger spelling is hard for beginners.
"a-n-d..." I ask, awaiting her reply.
"W-e-l-l, w-e d-o-n't r-e-a-l-l-y k-n-o-w... d-o-n't r-e-a-l-l-y k-n-o-w w-h-a-t t-h-e o-p-e-r-a-t-i-o-n i-s, I-n-u-y-a-s-h-a. W-e d-o-n't k-n-o-w h-o-w i-t w-o-r-k-s, w-e d-o-n't k-n-o-w w-h-a-t t-h-e r-i-s-k-s a-r-e... w-e d-o-n't k-n-ow..."
"K-a-e-d-e a-n-d M-y-o-g-a t-o-l-d y-o-u! I-f y-o-u'r-e n-o-t s-u-r-e, j-u-s-t d-o s-o-m-e r-e-s-e-a-r-c-h!"
"N-o-w I-n-u-y-a-s-h-a, m-o-m-m-y a-n-d d-a-d-d-y a-r-e v-e-r-y b-u-s-y w-i-t-h w-o-r-k r-i-g-h-t n-o-w, y-o-u k-n-o-w w-e d-o-n't h-a-v-e t-i-m-e t-o..."
"Y-o-u h-a-v-e t-i-m-e f-o-r S-e-s-s-h-o-m-a-r-u!"
"N-o-w I-n-u-y-a-s-h-a, y-o-u k-n-o-w t-h-a-t's n-o-t f-a-i-r t-o m-e o-r d-a-d-d-y!"
I feel a wave of pent up anger hit me, anger I've been holding back since I ever learned I was different from other kids.
"You think that just because I'm deaf means I'm retarded too!" I sign, not bothering to fingerspell, "You and 'daddy' never have had time for me. Heck, you've never even bothered to learn the language I frickking use!"
"I-n-u-y-a-s-h-a, h-o-n-e-y, s-l-o-w d-o-w-n, I c-a-n't u-n-d-e-r-t-a-n-d y-o-u!"
She misspelled understand
"You see my point! Inuyasha, honey slow down, I can't 'u-n-d-e-r-t-a-n-d' you," I swallow and get ready for the killing blow. "Well, if you can't 'u-n-d-e-r-t-a-n-d' me, you can go to hell, because you obviously don't care about me at all!"
I turn on my heel, slamming the door as hard as I can. I've never really gotten why slamming doors bothers everyone so much, but whenever someone slams the door everyone flinches... it must be a hearing thing.
I take the elevator down to the second floor, where my room is, (my parents are on the fifth) still fuming.
My parents always have time for Sessho-maru. They went to his high school graduation on the other side of Japan, they would take him to the theatre when he came home for holidays. Now that he goes to a nearby college, mother and father let him have parties so wild that I can feel the pulse of the music blaring from the ballroom downstairs.
I enter my room and flop on my bed. It's the smallest room in the house, only the size of a normal living room, and it makes mother, or 'mommy' as she calls herself, feel claustrophobic. I get my laptop out and surf the net for information on cochlear implants.
I look at the stories of grinning teens who al have benefited from cochlear implants and almost throw the computer across the room... I'm so freaking close to being able to hear that I can almost touch it.
Why do parent have to be so stupid?
Kaede opens my door. I feel the vibrations of her footfalls on the carpeted floor. I don't bother to look at her; I wait for her to walk in front of me.
"Inu?" Kaede looks apprehensive, "Can we talk?"
I shake my head no.
"I think we need to, Inuyasha. Your mother said you were very upset."
"What does she know?"
"Did you have an argument?"
"Even if we did, she wouldn't understand it, would she?"
"I see what it's all about now..." she sits next to me on the bed, "She tries, you know..."
I turn my head away. I don't want to know what she's saying.
Kaede touches my shoulder. I look at her unwillingly.
"I have a compromise. How about you invite the doctor and her family for dinner here? That way, your parents will understand what will happen before their decision."
I nod, and Kaede gives me an odd little pat on the head and leaves my room for her apartment. I lie on my stomach and surf the web for a while, eventually playing a rather addicting game of 'snake,' which I waste my time at for about an hour, before I fall asleep as the electric clock on my bedside table says 11:30.